Russia has effectively stopped taking back the prisoners of war it recruited in Ukraine’s occupied territories, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War told Radio Svoboda. The headquarters said Kyiv is ready to return those who want to go, and swaps happen as soon as Moscow puts them on its exchange lists.

Russia drafts men in the Ukrainian territories it occupies and sends them to fight Ukraine. The headquarters’ statement, published on 4 November, came after Russia’s human rights commissioner claimed Moscow had just won such men back for the first time since 2022. These men fit neither side’s story. Ukraine counts them as its citizens, yet they fought in Russia’s army, and by Kyiv’s account Moscow rarely asks for them.

Recruited under occupation

The headquarters declined to give a total. It said 15% of the Russian POWs held in Ukraine were recruited in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and in Crimea.

The share itself is not new. In February 2026, the headquarters told investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info that about 15% of POWs had joined the Russian army from occupied territories.

Kyiv’s terms

According to the headquarters, Ukraine has never objected to swapping these prisoners, provided they voluntarily ask to return to Russia in exchange for Ukrainian defenders. Kyiv has told Moscow this many times, it said. However, since 2023 Russia has effectively stopped taking them back. By the headquarters’ count, only a few dozen from this group were swapped in 2023–2026. Nothing on the Ukrainian side blocks their return, it added.

Kyiv’s line has not always sounded this open. In November 2025, the headquarters’ secretary Dmytro Usov said 16% of POWs in Ukrainian camps were Ukrainian citizens. He also said changes would go to parliament so that Ukrainians from occupied territories would not be returned to Russia in swaps. Euromaidan Press could not establish whether such a bill was filed.

Moscow’s version

On 23 October, Ukraine and Russia exchanged 270 prisoners each, and Ukraine’s 270 included nine civilians. It was the third stage of a combined swap that began on 19 August, the headquarters reported.

Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova then claimed Moscow had received 31 servicemen from the “DNR” and 13 from the “LNR,” Russian outlet Verstka reported. Those are Russia’s names for the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. She named six more from occupied Crimea. She claimed this was the first such return since 2022, and that Kyiv had earlier refused to list these men, calling them traitors for choosing Russia.

The headquarters denied the “first since 2022” claim, Radio Svoboda reported. The outlet noted that even Russian-installed administration heads in occupied areas had earlier reported such exchanges. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s state project I Want to Find told Novaya Gazeta Europe that Russia’s exchange lists included men from the “DNR” and “LNR” for the first time since 2025. The headquarters did not say whether its tally of a few dozen includes the 50 men Lantratova named.

Cases like these reach beyond the three areas the headquarters named. In February, Ivan Vikhariev, 22, from occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, told Slidstvo.Info he had signed a Russian contract in pretrial detention. He was then on trial for treason in Ukraine and could be handed to Russia if Moscow claimed him, the outlet reported.